Syracuse University officials recently announced that former Orangeman Billy Owens will receive the Vic Hanson Medal of Excellence at the annual Hardwood Banquet on Monday, March 10.

In the light of the fact that recent Vic Hanson award winners had their jerseys honored and raised to the Carrier Dome's rafters in the same year; this list includes Sherman Douglas, Derrick Coleman and Rony Seikaly, I surmised that Owens might be next in line to have his jersey honored.

I enjoyed reading of all the readers' thoughts on Owens and which other former SU players should have their jerseys honored.

Now, I'm ready to share my opinion.

I think Owens deserves the honor. But he's not my No. 1 candidate. My short list of potential honorees would include Lawrence Moten, John Wallace, Carmelo Anthony and the tandem of Roosevelt Bouie and Louis Orr. Others such as Gerry McNamara, Hakim Warrick and Dennis DuVal would be on my waiting list.

However, there's one man whose exploits have apparently been forgotten. And that's a shame.

Billy Gabor played at Syracuse in the 1942-43 season. He had his college career interrupted by World War II and then played three more seasons from 1945-46 to 1947-48.

He was the first player in SU history to score 1,000 points in his career. His career scoring record of 1,344 career points stood for nearly 20 years until Dave Bing came along.

Gabor was the first player in SU history to lead the team in scoring in each of his four seasons. To this day no other player can make that claim. Read that again. To this day no other player in SU history has led his team in scoring for four years.

As a freshman, Gabor did not play in Syracuse's first five games of the 1942-43 season. Syracuse was 1-6 when coach Lew Andreas put Gabor in the starting lineup. Gabor responded with 22 points in a 52-51 win over Cornell.

To put that in perspective, Jonny Flynn set the SU freshman record for most points in his college debut with 28 points against Siena. Technically, Gabor didn't score 22 points in his college debut, but he did score 22 points in his second college game and his first career start.

Nicknamed "Bullet'' Gabor was one of the fastest players ever. Not of his time. Ever. In 1976, Michigan coach Johnny Orr said Wolverines guard was the fastest player he had seen since Billy Gabor.

As a sophomore, Gabor led Syracuse to a 23-4 record and an NIT bid. It was the first post-season appearance in school history.

Gabor, who is now 86 years old and living in Florida, played seven seasons in the NBA. He made the 1953 NBA All-Star team.

But it's really what Gabor did while at Syracuse University that makes him an easy choice to have his jersey honored.